Part of it is politics. Seems impossible to be the public leader who says, “Everything’s great here!”

But we also tend to judge these things in terms of dollars and cents — taxes, incentives, etc. Really, though, it’s quality of life — crime, education, recreation — that compels people to stay or leave and the economy to prosper or struggle.

Consider this the first in an occasional series of posts where we look at a statement from someone in Minnesota saying Wisconsin’s got a better economy or someone from Wisconsin saying Minnesota’s doing better. We’ll ask: Does it matter?